While scientists have worked hard over the last three centuries to describe and classify living organisms such that each distinct species would be known by a unique name, there are many species which have more than one (and in some cases, several) common names. This isn’t really surprising since scientists use Latin as the language to apply official scientific names and regular folk like to use the regionally common name they have always used.
Colloquial names have also arisen from a tradition of long local usage and the publication of official names, as endorsed by a panel of eminent scientists who live somewhere else, is not going to end the use of colloquial names.
It’s one of the charming eccentricities of birdwatching that two birders can be arguing about some aspect of two similar birds, only they don’t realize they are discussing the same bird because they are referring to it by different colloquial names. Granted, this doesn’t happen very often anymore as the common names are becoming more standardized, thanks in large part to the explosion of bird guides that have been published over the past 50 years.
However, there are people who still refer to birds by their more colourful colloquial names. Here’s a list of the more commonly encountered colloquial names (in capital letters) along with the equivalent name that is used in bird guidebooks. (This list is based, in large part, on the names recorded in The Birdwatcher’s Companion by Christopher Leahy)
Bee-Martin – Eastern Kingbird
BEETLEHEAD – hunter’s name for the Black-Bellied Plover
BLUEBILL – hunter’s name for Lesser Scaup, Greater Scaup or Ruddy Duck
BOGSUCKER – American Woodcock
BOS’N BIRD (Boatswain’s Bird) – seaman’s name for Jaegers and Tropicbirds
BULLBAT – nighthawks
BURGOMASTER – sailor’s name for a Glaucous Gull
BUTCHER BIRD – Northern Shrike, Loggerhead Shrike
BUTTERBALL – hunter’s name for the Bufflehead duck
BUTTERBILL – hunter’s name for the Black Scoter duck
BUZZARD – popular name for vultures, like the Black Vulture and Turkey Vulture.
CALICO PLOVER – hunter’s name for the Ruddy Turnstone
CALLITHUMPIAN DUCK – the Long-tailed Duck
CAREY CHICKS – Storm-petrels
CHAPARRAL COCK – Greater Roadrunner
CHEBEC – Least Flycatcher
CHEWINK – Spotted Towhee
CHUCKLEHEAD – hunter’s name for the Black-bellied Plover
CREAKER – hunter’s name for the Pectoral Sandpiper
DABCHICK – Pied-billed Grebe
DEVIL-DOWNHEAD – nuthatches
DIABLOTIN – Black-capped Petrel
DOUGHBIRD (or DOEBIRD) – Eskimo Curlew; any large bodied shorebird.
DUNK-A-DOO – American Bittern
ERNE – White-tailed Sea Eagle
FISH HAWK – Osprey
FOOL HEN – Spruce Grouse, Blue Grouse
GAREFOWL – Great Auk
GOONYBIRD – sailor’s name for Albatrosses
GRASSHOPPER HAWK – Northern Shrike, Loggerhead Shrike
GREENHEAD – hunter’s name for the Mallard duck
GREENLET – vireos
GROUNDBIRD – sparrows
GROUND WARBLER – Common Yellowthroat
GRUNTER – hunter’s name for the Wilson’s Phalarope
GUMP – hunter’s name for the Black-bellied Plover
HAGDON – sailor’s name for shearwaters
HARRYWICKET – Northern Flicker
HELL-DIVER – smaller grebes, such as the Pied-billed Grebe
HONKER – Canada Goose
HUMILITY – Willet
ICE BIRD – sailor’s name for both the Dovekie and Razorbill
JIDDY HAWK – sailor’s name for the jaegers
LINNET – Eurasian Finch, House Finch
LOGCOCK – Pileated Woodpecker
LORD AND LADY – a pair of Harlequin Ducks
MACKEREL GOOSE – fisherman’s name for phalaropes
MACKEREL GULL – sailor’s name for terns, particularly the Common Tern, and Arctic Tern.
MAN-O’-WAR BIRD – frigatebirds
MARLIN – hunter’s name for godwits
MARLINESPIKE – sailor’s name for Parasitic and Long-tailed Jaegers
MOLLYMAUK – sailor’s name for the Northern Fulmar
MOORHEN – Common Gallinule
MOSQUITO HAWK – nighthawks
MOTHER CAREY’S CHICKENS – sailor’s name for storm-petrels, mainly Wilson’s and Leach’s Storm-Petrels
MUD HEN – Common Gallinule
MUTTON BIRD – Slender-billed Shearwater, Sooty Shearwater
NONPAREIL – Painted Bunting
OLDSQUAW – former name for the Long-tailed Duck
OUZEL – thrushes; or American Dipper
OXEYE – hunter’s name for small sandpipers
PEABODY BIRD – White-throated Sparrow
PEEP – hunter’s name for small sandpipers
PRAIRIE PIGEON – Franklin’s Gull
PREACHER – Red-eyed Vireo
QUAILHEAD – Lark Sparrow
QUANDY – hunter’s name for a female Goldeneye duck
QUANK – White-breasted Nuthatch
QUAWK – Black-crowned Night Heron
RAIN CROW – Black-billed or Yellow-billed Cuckoos
REDBIRD – Northern Cardinal
RICEBIRD – Bobolink
ROBIN SNIPE – hunter’s name for the Red Knot
SAWBILL – mergansers
SCISSORBILL – Black Skimmer
SEA HEN – sailor’s name for the Great Skua
SEA PARROT – sailor’s name for the Common Puffin
SEA PIGEON – sailor’s name for the Black Guillemot
SEA SWALLOW – sailor’s name for the terns, i.e., Common Tern, Roseate Tern, and Arctic Tern
SHAG – cormorants
SHITEPOTE – herons, i.e. Black-crowned Night Heron, Green Heron
SKUNKHEAD – hunter’s name for the male Surf Scoter
SMUTTY-NOSED COOT – hunter’s name for the Black Scoter
SNAKEBIRD – Anhinga
SNOWFLAKE – Snow Bunting
SOLAN GOOSE – Northern Gannet
SPECKLEBELLY – hunter’s name for the White-fronted Goose
SPRIG – hunter’s name for the Pintail duck
STIB – hunter’s name for the larger small-bodied sandpipers, such as the Sanderling and Dunlin
SWAMP ANGEL – Wood Thrush, Hermit Thrush
TEACHER BIRD – Ovenbird
TEETER-BOB – Spotted Sandpiper
THISTLEBIRD – American Goldfinch
THROAT-CUT – a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak
THUNDERPUMP – American Bittern
TICKLE-ARSE – sailor’s name for the Black-legged Kittiwake
TIMBERDOODLE – American Woodcock
TINKER – sailor’s name for the Razorbill
TITLARK – pipits
TURR – sailor’s name for the murres
WAMP – hunter’s name for eiders, particularly the King Eider
WATER HEN – American Coot
WATER WITCH – Pied-billed Grebe
WAVY – hunter’s name for the Snow/Blue Goose
WHALEBIRD – sailor’s name for the phalaropes found at sea, i.e., the Red Phalarope and Northern Phalarope
WHIPTAIL – sailor’s name for the Long-tailed Jaeger
WHISKEY JACK – Gray Jay
WHISTLER – hunter’s name for goldeneye ducks
WHOOPER – Whooping Crane
WIDE-AWAKE – Sooty Tern
WOBBLE – sailor’s name for the Great Auk
YELLOWHAMMER – Northern Flicker, particularly the yellow-shafted race of this species